And why do you like it so much?
So anyway, I love those dark maples with the leaves that are so blue they’re almost black in certain light. I call them goth maples.
Picture:
Oh wow it’s about as close as you can get
Japanese Maple. Had one by the front door of the house I grew up in. Reminds me of my childhood home.
Oh the colors
Birch!
They’re just so beautiful!
People used to make all kinds of stuff from the bark, too
And from the wood. It’s a hardwood but it’s often used where softwoods would be. Baltic birch plywood is some excellent stuff.
Didnt the Vikings use birch tar to make their wooden ships watertight? Awesome tree!
Weeping willow trees. We had one at my childhood home. When it was sold, the new owners tore it out. I was very sad.
Don’t worry, it’s back. Those things refuse to die.
I am fairly certain there are no trees on the property anymore. I don’t know what they had against trees, but they tore out everything!
Everything about the Gingko tree is pretty cool
The walnut tree. Its leaves are dense so it casts a cohesive shadow, perfect for shelter from the sun. I LOVE how it smells, especially when developing walnuts, and green walnuts are entirely unique in how they taste!
Weeping Willow!
Number three…
The larch.
That shade
Fiddy.
Not too expensive.
About three fiddy?
*tree fiddy
Despite being really really invasive here in Europe, I love the Staghorn Sumac.
It’s very pretty, with great flowers and soft furry branches (like antlers). You can make an amazing “lemonade” from the fruits and you can eat the shoots raw.
And eating the shoots raw is a great idea, because it branches out like crazy. If your neighbors have one of these, you’ll soon have half a dozen too.
They also grow pretty fast, and the wood is super pretty (and super curvy, so you won’t be making any boards out of it)
I’ll keep my eyes open for those next spring
I love sumac too!
They do grow fast- sumac can give shade in a sunny spot in a single year.
The way light comea through the leaves is so soothing.
Scots pine
Being the most common tree in America doesn’t make the sycamore any less awesome.
They’re big and their canopy is lush. Their limbs are all twisty and knobbly. They’ve got huge leaves that sound amazing blowing in the wind or crunching underfoot. The colloquialism for their seedpods is hilarious and the pods themselves are almost as cool as sweetgum seed pods.
Just some great trees all around.
Delonix regia, the original flamboyant.
I’ve got three and I’ve been trying to grow each from seed:
- Dawn Redwood because it has an incredible backstory, it is a true redwood contrary to popular belief, and It easily grows where I’m at.
- Giant Sequoia because they are massive, it is also a true redwood, and it can allegedly grow where I’m at.
- Cedar of Lebanon because I grew up in one of the many U.S. towns of Lebanon named for the trees as referenced in that religious book and I remember the original Cedar of Lebanon referenced in that story I linked.
Unfortunately, I can’t get the Giant Sequoias past a few inches tall while even acknowledging their infamous 20% germination rate. The Cedar of Lebanon seeds I can’t even get to germinate but I also haven’t found as much academic literature on cultivating them from seeds.
Shoutout to the Ginkgo Biloba for being one of the OG trees, also.
